Hitchhiking in Hawaii

“‘Hey Sean’, he said, ‘I heard that you have only 46 cents in your pocket’. ‘Yes, sir. There’s nothing around here, I can’t sell my artwork.’ I am crippled when I can’t sell my artwork.”

A kind moment?

I just came back from Hawaii three months ago. Me and two other people were walking on King Kameha road, up into the mountains. This place is desolate, no one goes, there were barely any cars. It was raining, pretty miserable, and it was a long walk. I never hitchhiked before in my life; hey, I’m a 6’2, big, black guy. But it was raining, and I thought, you know what, I’m going to do it. So, I put my thumb out, and the car stopped! It worked!

We got into the car and it was Mr. Denis and Peggy. Mr. Denis is a 72 years old, really fit. And Ms. Peggy, she’s a gardener. We got to our place, and Mr. Denis says, ‘Nah, you aren’t going in there, you’ve got no money, you’re coming to our house, we’ll take care of you for a little bit.’ We spent eleven days with them. He showed me around the island, I worked with him, trimming plants, cleaning up, helping with groceries.

One of the days, we went to Bill’s house, right around the corner to watch football. He is 75, a lot of old people there. ‘Hey Sean’, he said, ‘I heard that you have only 46 cents in your pocket’. ‘Yes, sir. There’s nothing around here, I can’t sell my artwork.’ I am crippled when I can’t sell my artwork. And he stands up, goes into his pocket, and peels off five 20’s, gives me a hundred bucks. ‘Here, now I got you for ten hours of work, you want me to drive you down to the store so you can get some provisions?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir! Thank you so much!’ So, I had a job for five months, construction job, painting. Boom, just like that!